Taylor-ed to “U” by Helen Liu
U, all U.
There it is, U. Well, not quite your “U”, since this is a generalized diagram, but hopefully it will serve as the base for visualization of your “U”. The red represents activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which encourages energy, and the blue represents the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which functions in rest.
I say “energy” with several definitions in mind. The energy of movement, of exercising, or of accomplishing a task physically. The energy of emotion, of strong anger, jubilant happiness, intense anxiety, or great surprise. The energy of the mind, of focusing deeply on a problem or running a million thoughts a second.
Similarly, the definition of “rest” has several definitions in this context. It includes physical rest, like sleeping or lying down. It includes mental rest, like calm meditation or a moment of internal peace. It includes perhaps too much rest, like that depressive feeling of not wanting to leave the bed despite knowing that is the wrong decision.
This represents your energy state throughout the day as life stressors make themselves known. As your physical, mental, and emotional states change, your place on the “U” oscillates back and forth. This oscillation is welcome, at least for me, since I would be bored if I were in one emotional state all the time. However, if I encounter a particular stressor and my state shoots up to hit either end of my “U”?
Well, then, my self manifests in a way that I do not enjoy. That can come in the form of explosive anger and lashing out (this would be an example of hitting the end on the red SNS side) or in the form of all-consuming lethargy that prevents us from getting out of bed (this would be an example of hitting the end on the blue PNS side).
In this post, I will be talking mostly about my “U” because that is the “U” I know best. I don’t want to assume anything about you because I know people can be really different. However, I hope that what I have written clicks with you so we can all make our “U” better fit into our journey of self-improvement!
That said, my question for “U”-related self-improvement is, how can I work on minimizing the number of instances I hit those extreme, unpleasant ends?
Matching it Up
First, it helps me to start with a visualization. I think of the shape of my ideal “U” and work on slowly changing my current “U” shape to fit it better. I envision my ideal curve to be a flatter curve, making it harder to shoot up either end when I encounter stress.
It’s much like making a mathematical function match with a given one. Let’s call this given function “Happy” and the function I’m making “Helen” since Helen (me) is making it and Helen would like to be Happy. In this analogy, the function “Helen” represents my current “U” and the function “Happy” represents my ideal “U”.
Now, I start with two terms (values separated by +/- signs in an equation) in “Helen”. Right now, “Helen” intersects with “Happy” at exactly one point and is a straight line. It’s a start! Though a straight line is far from my ideal “U” shape, I am somewhere on my ideal “U”, and I know I can keep working from there. This match represents that I have become present in my body and myself, putting me on the radar of my “U”.
Next, I add a term to make the “Helen” line turn into a curved shape. Now the functions match for a little bit more than one point – let’s say, they match for an arbitrarily defined two units! There is still more room for improvement, but I am expanding my practice of my ideal “U”. This match represents that I am not only present in my body and emotions but also present in making an intentional effort to take care of them. Be it through mindfulness activities, journaling when inspiration strikes, or going outside to enjoy the local squirrels and trees, this added term represents everything I do internally for myself to react non-negatively to stress.
Then, I add another term to flatten the “Helen” curve to make it fit the “Happy” curve better. The term represents an action I took to address my stress that day (like intentionally taking a break to feel more rested or being productive to feel accomplished). Now, the length the functions match up increases to four arbitrary units, pushing me closer to my ideal!
Continuing on, I keep adding more terms to flatten “Helen” to better fit “Happy”. The length for which the curves line up with each other increases with each new term added! Each term represents another action I utilize to address stress, such as talking to friends, building a support network, and showing my appreciation to the people who care about me. The increased match length represents each element’s contribution to the success of my growth goals.
Eventually, as the number of terms added approaches infinity, “Helen” will match up completely with “Happy,” and there we have it! A function called “Helen,” tailored to my ideals of “Happy.” We have made a “Happy Helen” if you will. (Indeed, I am smiling right now.)
Of course, it is impossible to actually use an infinite number of coping strategies. The point is that the more ways you try out to address stress – even those that do not work help match the functions since narrowing down the strategies to try helps too! – the better you will get at achieving your ideal “U”! Sometimes the “U” you currently have does something a little crazy during the journey, or sometimes the ideal “U” shape changes, but nevertheless, it will keep getting better with time and effort.
Taylor, is that U?
Some of you music fans out there might have swiftly thought of a certain Taylor when you saw the title, but I’m afraid that’s not what the name refers to. I didn’t want to scare anyone with fancy names (I know I get pretty intimidated by them), so I held off on mentioning the name of the mathematical concept.
If you don’t want to know, please stop reading here. Thank you for reading up until now, and I wish you a wonderful journey to growing your “U”!
If you want to know, it is called the Taylor Series. It refers to the process of using a polynomial to approximate a function about a certain point. As the degree of the polynomial increases, the approximation gets closer to the given function. 3Blue1Brown does a helpful visualization of this process for the function e^x. The video is linked below in the additional resources, I encourage you to watch it!
Additional resources:
Video on the Taylor Series (e^x visualization shown 13:34-14:25): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d6DsjIBzJ4
Jessica Reinsmoen’s blog post that further explains the “U”
Additional tools for when you may be in crisis:
U.S. Crisis Text Line: 741-741
Ohio Mobile Response and Stabilization Services: 1-888-418-MRSS (6777)